Recently, due to rapid popularization of networks represented by the Internet and its technology developments, a user has become able to browse information in the network using not only PCs (Personal Computers) such as a desktop PCs and laptop PCs but also various information terminals such as mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistances), consumer electronics, and car navigation devices. The information browsing software (Hereinafter, “browser”.) is installed in these information terminals. The browser parses a document described in a markup language described, for example, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), and then, performs a layout process based on the parsed result. Thereby, the information on the network (e.g., page) is displayed (i.e., rendered) on a display of the terminal.
First, the terms used in this application are defined.
Network:
The “network” includes various kinds of communications network including a carrier telecommunications network, an intranet, and the Internet.
Content:
The “content” is a set of information which the user views, including video, image, music or text, or their combinations, which is transmitted via a network or stored in a terminal.
Web Content:
The “web content” is a form of the content, and a set of information transmitted via a network.
Web Page (or Simply, “Page”):
The “web page” (or simply, “page”) is a form of web content, and is whole content that is to be displayed when the user designated a particular URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). In other words, it means whole content that can be displayed by scrolling the image on the display. It is noted that a web page includes not only a page for browsing online but also a page for browsing offline. The web page for browsing offline includes, for example, pages transmitted via the Internet and cached by the browser, and pages saved in a “mht” format in places such as a local folder in a terminal device. The web page includes various kinds of data such as a HTML document, an image file, and voice data.
In accordance with the above definition, content encompasses web content, and web content encompasses a web page and a page.
The screen size of mobile terminals such as mobile phones is extremely small compared with, for example, desktop PCs. Therefore, the displaying size of a page is small, and its visibility is poor. Specially, when displaying, on a mobile terminal, pages created especially for, for example, desktop PCs, the poor visibility becomes more serious.
In such cases when the visibility of a page is poor, it may be difficult for the user to point exactly, for example, a desired anchor link included in the page. Also, a poor visibility of a page results in, for example, operation mistakes. Further, it results in an increase in a number of times needed for an operation.
For example, Japanese Patent provisional Publication No JP2002-351620A discloses technology created considering those problems. In accordance with JP2002-351620A, a page being displayed is divided into a plurality of areas. Then, when the user selects one of the areas, anchor links included in the area is extracted and displayed as a listed pop-up. By means of a simple operation that selects a desired anchor link among the lists, the user displays, for example, a topic of interest (i.e., link destination) on the screen.